View source for Pastoral Care (Troyes, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 504)

[[Image:01 01B 504 4TroyesMS504PastoralCare.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Start of the main text; the first three lines are also in coloured ink, which has run or faded.]]
'''Troyes, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 504''' is an early 7th-century [[illuminated manuscript]] of the ''[[Pastoral Care]]'' by [[Pope Gregory I]]. It was probably written in Rome about AD 600, whilst Gregory was still alive, and contains his final revised text. 

It is written in an [[uncial]] script. There are about twenty-five long lines per page. There are no divisions between words. The only ornamentation in the manuscript is penwork initials in red, green and yellow, and coloured text for the first lines after them. It is one of the oldest complete manuscript books in existence. 

The initial shown makes an interesting comparison with the opening initial of the [[Bobbio Jerome]] from about twenty years later, produced in North Italy by an outpost of the [[Hiberno-Scottish mission]]. This shows characteristics typical of [[Insular art]], but in other ways is not dissimilar to this one.

==References==
*De Hamel, Christopher. ''A History of Illuminated Manuscripts''. Boston: David R. Godine, 1986.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Bibliothèque municipale de Troyes MS 504 - Pastoral Care}}
*[https://portail.mediatheque.grand-troyes.fr/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=search#RecordId=2.2758 Complete scan of the book]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pastoral Care (Troyes, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS 504)}}
[[Category:7th-century illuminated manuscripts]]
[[Category:Christian illuminated manuscripts]]


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